Don’t rely on an “implied” continuous operations covenant—that is, one that isn’t expressly stated in the lease—if you want your retail tenant to continuously operate from its space. Some courts might find that...
If you’re negotiating a lease with a tenant that primarily sells consumer electronics and appliances, don’t agree to exclude sales of extended warranties, subscriptions, repairs, delivery, and other services from the definition of...
Recent natural disasters and extreme weather have forced some tenants out of business or have forced them to relocate after their space has been damaged. And many shopping centers have felt the effects of a tenant shakeup. Aside from dealing with...
If an environmentally “risky” tenant, such as a dry cleaning business, gas station, or auto service center—which all use chemicals that could contaminate your property—will be lucrative enough to make taking the risk of potential damage worth it, it’s crucial that...
Unfortunately, at some point you may have to evict a tenant or pick up the pieces if a tenant abandons its space. It’s hard enough to have to regroup and find a new tenant quickly. But being forced to take on an undesirable tenant—one with a bad credit rating or that doesn’t...
Technological advances that provide security and convenience for users are being made in leaps and bounds, and even the traditional commercial real estate industry is benefitting—most recently, from digital signature software. Traditional methods of executing leases and related documents...
Q: My tenant agreed to be accountable for any ADA infraction that’s discovered in its space in the future. Could I still be on the hook for the same violation? And how can I make sure that I find out about the violation while there...
A new bill that would require online retailers to collect and remit state sales taxes has been introduced by U.S. Reps. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and Steve Womack, R-Ark. The Remote Transactions Parity Act (H.R. 2775) follows Womack’s Marketplace Fairness Act, which passed in the Senate last...
One thing you do not like to hear when negotiating a commercial lease agreement is that the tenant must have possession of the space by some important date, known as the “drop-dead date.” Why? Because the tenant usually wants the landlord to...
Commercial real estate lease assignments might seem straightforward for both office and retail space: A tenant that wishes to leave its space finds another tenant willing to take over the space and the original tenant’s lease. And, typically, the lease’s assignment clause will...
One of the key economic questions any commercial lease must address is whether the tenant is responsible for paying real estate taxes on the property and, if so, how much. More often than not, the tenant does have tax liabilities, but because of the money...
Standard commercial net leases require the tenants to pay a pro-rata share of property taxes on an office building or shopping center based on how much of the space each occupies. As a result, when improvements cause the property’s tax assessment to go up, the big tenants pay the lion...
